Russia has no plans to take part in OPEC summit — minister

SOCHI, May 20. /TASS/. Russia has no plans to take part in OPEC summit though it may hold consultations beyond the summit, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit on Friday.

"Russia is not an OPEC member-state and we haven’t participated in OPEC summit. We will obviously consider any proposals on consultations beyond the framework of OPEC summit involving both OPEC members and non-OPEC members if they arise. Most probably we will take part in them given the fact that we’ve always participated in such consultations," Novak said, adding that "so far there has been no such initiative."

Earlier Novak said that Russia did not expect new initiatives on stabilization of crude oil output before the OPEC summit in June this year though Russia is ready to participate in the discussion if the issue is raised.

On April 17, representatives of 18 oil-producing countries met in Doha (Qatar). Iran refused to discuss the oil production freeze saying it was unwilling to "give up its historic production quota."

The participants of the talks failed to reach an agreement on oil production cap. After 12 hours of talks the parties said they needed some more time for consideration. According to Novak, the oil output freeze agreement was not reached as several countries changed their positions.